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Here's the place to get some answers to your fitting questions and to share the problem-solving methods you've discove1'ed. If you think you have a better solution than one we've given here, write and tell running from the hem to, but not through, the waist seam. Then at the fullest point of the hip, construct a perpendicular line that runs to, but not through, the side seam, as shown below. Send your fitting questions, comments, and solutions to Threads FIT, 63 S. Main St., PO Box 5506, Newtown, CT 06470-5506. watch the grain the crotch, If a big tummy requires lengthening the crotch (Threads, No. 33, p. 8), here's a better way that preserves grain. (The method that was shown dart off grain.) Slash down a grainline on one side of the dart to the point where the bottom of the tummy starts protruding. Slash from that point on a cross-grain line through the center front. Spread out and up as required by the individual's measurements, and true the seamlines. Chances are the dart must be altered as well, usually to be shorter and less deep at the waist. will -Elaine Rutledge Heavy thighs I have heavy thighs and I find that most slacks hug my legs in a way I so I have s them. Is there another way? -Shirley Mendlowitz, Lake Worth, FL topp do Dee DuMont replies: Full thighs can be visually diminished by careful pattern selection. Pants that have deep pleats at the waist can look gOOd, as can harem styles and long culottes. However, two very basic alterations can make even the most tailored cut look good on your body. The standard alteration to increase the area at the hip and thigh is a modified T-slash. On the pants-pattern front and back (you'll probably want to distribute this additional ease on both pattern pieces), draw a line parallel with the grain 8 not like, ed wearing us. Slash to pivot points and spread, For narrow hem, swing segment in to meet larger piece, throw the lateral slash to remain flat, and the hemline "vill require trueing to return the pattern to its original character. This alteration can also be done on skirt patterns. Starting at the hem, cut the pattern to the pivot points, and spread the long pieces apart to increase fullness. From the fullest point down you have two choices, depending on the pant style. You can continue the increased amount (% in. for example) all the way to the hem by placing the outer pattern segment parallel to your original cut, as shown below. Or, if you want the Pants for a pear-shaped body I'm rather pants fit in the back, seat, and u grea hips, with heavy thighs. My test problem problem crotch and the angle of the center-back seam. figured out blouses back sleeve lengt a little Marga sleeve and bodice seam.) -Joyce Gossett, Hayti, MO ret Komives replies: lower from how to (I to the back For full hem, keep segments parallel, narrower look at the hem, s"ving the pattern segment in until it touches the inner segment, as shown at top right. In either case, the pattern will overlap at the two articles on that very topic.) Along with Elaine Rutledge, I, too, found the pants correction in No. 33 lacking, because the widtll was increased only above the hip, not in the inseam where it's probably needed. I prefer to do the length correction first, then add width at the inseam, as I'll eA1Jlain later. These corrections are easy to modify at the fitting stage if necessary. A very angular center-back eads seam has the effect of one huge dart in the middle of your bust: I increase the h and also unde갰騲rm add You're right on target with your statement that the problem lies largely in the cut of the crotch and the angle of the center-back seam. (See also Thr , No. 18, pp. 32-37 for have keep gaping at the inseams are sewn together. Here about fitting pants: First determine the length of the lower torso from waist to crotch by subtracting the inseam length from the side-seam length of an existing pair of pants that fit in that area. If the front pattern does not is a good way to have a crotch line, it's easy to draw one. It should be perpendicular to the grainline and end at the point where the center seam meets the inseam (drawing, p. 10, top left). Compare this measurement to that of the front pattern, and alter on the lengthen-or-shorten line if need be. The back pattern would be altered by the same amount. (No ease is needed because the existing garment already has it and because this seam can be lowered but never raised.) Th go pper down to rrowed the roun갰騲㭨၀ is legs. I've na the cut of the if pants. At the base of a dart there will be fullness. In the case of pants, that fullness will end up right where you if you are making dress pants that you want to hang nicely from the waist. If you prefer snug thighs, as with jeans, you'd need more of an angle. The crotch curve shape is want it least often a problem because a woman's pelvic structure differs from that of a man's, and while now and then you find a pattern that is cut accordingly, most are not. In most cases the back crotch curve should be lowered and the center-back seam straightened, as shown below. This correction is best accomplished after the fUll in making II II ': : 1/ i needed. straighten and lower crotch curve, rem1갰 Maga갰ine